Definition of "defray" []

• To undertake the payment of (costs or expenses); pay. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Is there anything people can do to kind of defray those costs?"
• "The suit said insurers have been subje ct to "assessments to defray operating expenses" of the insurance department since 1940, under state law."
• "Often, buyers of these natural-gas trucks have received government subsidies that have helped defray the higher purchase price."